Arien Mack

New School · Department of Psychology (Social Research)

Negative color aftereffects normally occur following prolonged observation of colored surfaces and are generally attributed to sensory adaptation of opponent processes responsible for color vision. We describe evidence that negative color aftereffects, no different from those that occur when actually viewing red, are perceived in the complete absen...

These results confirm the phenomenon of expectation blindness and demonstrate the significant power of an incidentally developed expectation to influence perception. Here it leads Os to see a face when it is absent despite the fact that faces are highly salient stimuli with a dedicated cortical area, and which normally capture attention. Taken toge...

Whether scene gist perception occurs automatically and unconsciously has been the subject of much debate. In addition to demonstrating a new method that adapts the Mack and Rock (1998) inattentional blindness cross procedure to allow for sustained inattentional blindness over a large number of trials, we report evidence from a series of experiments...

Our data indicate that post-hypnotic suggestion unconsciously alters the attentional filter in highly suggestible participants. To our knowledge, this is the first experiment that demonstrates that a short hypnotic intervention increases control over the allocation of the processing resources in the AB paradigm.

Does scene incongruity, (a mismatch between scene gist and a semantically incongruent object), capture attention and lead to conscious perception? We explored this question using 4 different procedures: Inattention (Experiment 1), Scene description (Experiment 2), Change detection (Experiment 3), and Iconic Memory (Experiment 4). We found no differ...

Inattentional blindness refers to the failure to see an unexpected stimulus under conditions of inattention. What if an expected stimulus was absent under the same conditions? This study explores the role of attention and expectation in perception using the Mack and Rock (1998) inattention procedure. Observers were asked to report the longer arm of...

an issue devoted to invisibility—whether metaphoric, imagined, or real—deserves some discussion of the phenomenon of perceptual invisibility. This is not the invisibility that arises because something is too small, too far away, too dim, or made up of wavelengths of light that our visual system is unable to detect, such as infra-or ultraviolet— suc...

The experiments reported extend the findings of our earlier paper, (Mack, Erol, & Clarke, 2015) and allow us to reject Bachmann and Aru's critique of our conclusion (2015) that IM requires attention. They suggested our manipulations, which diverted attention from a letter reporting task in a dual task procedure where the task-cue occurred after the...

Change blindness for the contents of natural scenes suggests that only items that are attended while the scene is still visible are stored, leading some to characterize our visual experiences as sparse. Experiments on iconic memory for arrays of discrete symbols or objects, however, indicate observers have access to more visual information for at l...

This study examined whether iconic memories for natural scenes, similar to those used in Rensink et al.'s (1997) change blindness experiments, exist. A change detection procedure was used which included 120 scenes. Changes consisted of a deletion to the scene. Scenes were shown to each subject in one of four ways: change with cue (30 trials), chang...

Given the increased attentional and perceptual abilities exhibited by action video game players (AVGPs) (Green & Bavelier, 2003; Clark, Fleck, & Mitroff, 2011), it seems reasonable to expect them to perform differently on an inattentional blindness (IB) task from a non-gaming population. We explored whether this was the case. Using the Mack & Rock...

There is little question that single visual images can subliminally prime (Bar & Biederman, 1998) but the question of whether multiple, unrelated visual objects also can subliminally prime is not clear. Two experiments, explored whether subliminal presentations of two unrelated, visual objects would each independently prime. Experiment 1 (N=22) had...

Is proprioceptive information the source of adaptation to optically distorted visual stimulation? In an experiment where the only information as to optical minifica-tion of size is given by touch, there is no change in the visual perception of size. Rather the judgment of size via touch undergoes a transformation

Background / Purpose: How robust is inattentional blindness for natural scenes? Even though scenes are not consciously perceived without attention, do they prime gist-related words? Main conclusion: Inattentional blindness persists despite repeated presentations of natural scenes (60 presentations in the second experiment). Using reaction time...

Four experiments (240 subjects) explored gist perception without attention using the Mack and Rock (1998) cross task. Twelve scenes were flashed under conditions of inattention, divided, and full attention. Subjects described what they saw on critical trials in which a scene was flashed with the cross. In Experiments 3 and 4 subjects also chose the...

1. This is the famous, if not infamous, mind-body problem that has beset philosophers for a very long time and, more recently, cognitive psychologists. It is beyond the scope of this brief article. 2. The Simon and Levin Chabris demonstration is available online at <http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html>. 3. A charge has been made by Wolfe...

Examples of priming stimuli Equipment The experiment was run on a 1.83 GHz Intel Core duo Mac Mini computer running OS10.5.8. It was programmed and run in Superlab 4.0.7. The display appeared on a Mitsubishi DPlus74SB CRT monitor, 75Hz, 1152x864 dpi. Research Question Previous research has investigated the extent to which visual images of objects t...

Background / Purpose: It is thought that gist perception occurs without attention, and that gist can be perceived ‘in the near absence of attention’. Here, we report here whether this is in fact the case. Main conclusion: The evidence shows that gist perception rarely occurs under conditions of inattention. This occurs even when the scene is f...

Recent research looking into the inability to detect clearly visible, perceptual changes (Simons, 2000) has demonstrated that our subjective belief in a richly detailed perceptual world might be an illusion. It has been suggested that this phenomenon referred to as change blindness demonstrates the necessity of attention for conscious perception. B...

We reexamined and replicated the Wallach et al. (1953) finding of memory for the KDE establishing that a static projection of a 3-D wire figure, initially seen as 2-D, is seen as 3-D after observing an oscillating shadow projection of the figure which is seen as 3-D. In addition, we asked whether a static projection of the 3-D figure not included i...

Briefly presented masked images (subliminal) of graspable objects (tools, utensils, etc.) with their handles oriented left or right influence subsequent motor responses. Reaction time (RT) is significantly faster when the handle and response finger are congruent(Pappas & Mack, 2003). We questioned whether the same effect could be obtained under sup...

Wegner and colleagues found an ironic hyperaccessibility to thoughts subjects were instructed to suppress under conditions of high cognitive load which they called The Ironic Effect. Wegner proposed that the Ironic Process underlying this effect entails the integration of two parallel processes: an effortful cognitive process which searches for dis...

The dorsal visual stream has been implicated in visu-ally guided motor behavior (Milner & Goodale, 1996). Can objects that are nondetectable (subliminal) activate the dorsal stream? Using the stimulus-response compatibility paradigm, a physical correspondence between stimulus and response yields faster reaction times (RTs), we briefly presented ima...

The physical attributes of objects that are relevant to motor behaviour, or action, are referred to as affordances (Gibson, 1979). Recent evidence has shown that an object's affordance can potentiate an unrelated motor response even when there is no intention to respond to it (e.g., Tucker & Ellis, 1998). In the five experiments, we examined whethe...

Since at least the 1980s, there has been ample, compelling evidence of the importance of attention for perceptual awareness, and over a much, much longer period, philosophers and armchair psychologists as distant from each other as Aristotle and William James have recognized the inextricable link between attention and consciousness. We now even hav...

In a series of three experiments, we explored the nature of implicit representations in change blindness (CB). Using 3 x 3 letter arrays, we asked subjects (Ss) to locate changes in paired arrays separated by 80 ms ISIs, in which one, two or three letters of a row in the second array changed. In one testing version, a tone followed the second array...

Surprising as it may seem, research shows that we rarely see what we are looking at unless our attention is directed to it. This phenomenon can have serious life-and-death consequences. Although the inextricable link between perceiving and attending was noted long ago by Aristotle, this phenomenon, now called inattentional blindness (IB), only rece...

Attention is necessary for the conscious perception of any object. Objects not attended to are not seen. What is it that captures attention when we are engaged in some attention-absorbing task? Earlier research has shown that there are only a very few stimuli which have this power and therefore are reliably detected under these conditions (for exam...

The question of whether the visual world is a grand illusion is addressed and answered negatively. The question only arises because of the recent work on Inattentional Blindness (IB), Change Blindness (CB) and the Attentional Blink (AB) which establishes that attention is necessary for perception. It is argued that IB occurs only when attention is...

Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it. Many people believe that merely by opening their eyes, they see everything in their field of view; in fact, a line of psychological research has been taken as evidence of the existence of so-called preattentional perce...

Paying attention is something we are all familiar with and often take for granted, yet the nature of the operations involved in paying attention is one of the most profound mysteries of the brain. This book contains a rich, interdisciplinary collection of articles by some of the pioneers of contemporary research on attention. Central themes include...

It is widely assumed that the grouping of the visual field first described by the Gestalt psychologists and the related phenomenon of texture segregation occur very early in the processing of visual information and involve preattentive processes. All the recent evidence supporting this assumption comes from visual search experiments in which the su...

Having found by the use of a new method for examining perception without attention that grouping and texture segregation do not seem to occur (see Mack, Tang, Tuma, Kahn, & Rock (1992)Cognitive Psychology, 24, we go on to ask what is perceived without attention using this new method. Our subjects receive only one inattention trial in a sequence of...

Metacontrast masking is generally considered an effect of preattentive processes operative in early vision. Because of the growing evidence of the role of attention in other phenomena previously considered low level and preattentive, its possible role in masking was explored in three experiments in which meaningful target stimuli known to capture a...

Four stimulus elements configured as a notional diamond were flashed in pairs to elicit apparent motion. When the elements were identical (4 Zs), the direction of apparent motion was ambiguous. When the elements were pairs of different letters (Cs and Os, Es and Zs), letters of different sizes (Zs and zs), or oppositely oblique lines, the direction...

Four stimulus elements configured as a notional diamond were flashed in pairs to elicit apparent motion. When the elements were identical (4Zs), the direction of apparent motion was ambiguous. When the elements were pairs of different letters (Cs andOs,Es andZs), letters of different sizes (Zs andzs), or oppositely oblique lines, the direction of a...

Two experiments are described in which it was investigated whether the adaptation on which motion aftereffects (MAEs) are based is a response to retinal image motion alone or to the motion signal derived from the process which combines the image motion signal with information about eye movement (corollary discharge). In both experiments observers e...

Contrary to an earlier report [Anstis and Gregory, Q. Jl exp. Psychol. 17, 173-174 (1965)], we find that the sustained retinal motion caused by tracking a moving target over a stationary grating does not result in a motion aftereffect (MAE) which is equivalent to that resulting from comparable retinal motion caused by actual motion of a grating. Th...

Three experiments investigating the basis of induced motion are reported. The proposition that induced motion is based on the visual capture of eye-position information and is therefore a subject-relative, rather than object-relative, motion was explored in the first experiment. Observers made saccades to an invisible auditory stimulus following fi...

Reported 3 experiments investigating the basis of induced motion (IM). The proposition that induced motion is based on the visual capture of eye-position information and is therefore a subject- rather than object-relative motion was explored in Exp I with 20 Ss. Ss made saccades to an invisible auditory stimulus following fixation on a stationary s...

Three experiments were designed to determine whether Müller-Lyer figures cause a misperception of the positions of their fins and, if they do, whether it is commensurate with the distortion of extent. Observers marked the visible intersection of shaft and fins either with their unseen hands or with their visible hands after the figure had been remo...

Data are reported which support the conclusion that saccades which occur 600 msec or more after the brief, presentation of a target stimulus are directed to its perceived position when that differs from both its retinal and spatial position.

Previous investigations have challenged the generality of the claim that perceived motion is an effective stimulus for smooth pursuit eye movements. The experiments extend the scope of these investigations. Three experiments test the hypothesis that perceived motion can serve as the stimulus for pursuit when the eye movement does not generate const...

The retinal location of a saccadic target was made discrepant with its perceived position by means of an induced displacement. If localizing the target required information stored in memory, the eye was directed to the perceived target position. Otherwise, it was directed to its retinal location. These findings do not conform to either a strictly r...

It has recently been shown that perceived motion, in the absence of any appropriate retinal motion, is a sufficient stimulus to generate smooth pursuit eye motions. This raises the question of whether perceived motion is necessary for pursuit. In three experiments we obtained a negative answer to this question: retinal motion always governed pursui...

The normal relation between retinal image displacement and saccadic eye movement was experimentally altered by moving a stimulus vertically up or down contingent upon a subject's horizontal saccades. For half the subjects the stimulus moved up with a rightward and down with a leftward saccade, while for the other subjects the reverse was the case....

Duncker’s (1929) two-point induced movement phenomenon was reexamined to determine whether or not, as Duncker reports, the fixated stimulus is the one which is most likely to appear to move when objective stimulus movement is at or below subject-relative threshold. Data are reported indicating this is not the case.

A previously undocumented illusion of movement is reported which occurs when an observer, in an otherwise dark room, attempts to maintain fixation on a stationary light point located straight ahead of him while rotating his head from left to right. The light appears essentially stationary during head rotations up to about 25°, but with more extreme...

If a target moving at a constant velocity and tracked by the eyes comes to an abrupt stop, it appears to rebound sharply backward. Results from 50 Ss in 3 experiments indicate that the illusion is caused by an unmonitored overshoot of the target by the eyes. This suggests that position information during tracking is derived from efferent signals ra...

Experiments were performed to investigate the Filehne illusion, the apparent movement of the background during pursuit eye movements. In a dark room subjects tracked a luminous target as it moved at 3°/s or 10.5/s in front of an illuminated background which was either stationary or moved at a fraction of the target speed in the same or opposite dir...

A new visual illusion is reported. The apparent distance through which a displaced target appears to move is significantly shorter when pursuit tracked than when that same distance is observed by means of a saccadic eye movement. This misperception of distance seems to be related to the Aubert-Fleischl paradox, the underestimation of the velocity o...

The experiment reported demonstrates eye-dependent perceptual adaptation and adaptation to altered retinal disparity in the absence of cyclotorsion. Experimental observers were exposed to a binocular prism system that produced 5°, opposite rotations to the two eyes. Tests of monocularly perceived vertical and of binocularly perceived stereovertical...

The question investigated was whether or not eye movements accompanied by abnormal retinal image movements, movements that are either or both at a different rate or in a different direction than the eye movement, predictably lead to perceived movement. Os reported whether or not they saw a visual target move when the movement of the target was eith...

This book is a narrative description of research designed to explore perception without attention that began in 1988. With the exception of the 1st and last chapters, the book is a chronological history of this research project. The 1st chapter provides a summary of the main research findings and the last summarizes the conclusions drawn from the f...

[summarizes the authors'] research on [perceptual] grouping, texture segregation, and pop out [a paradigm in which the participant searches for a single item among a number of distractors] / address two problems: (a) how to reconcile our negative findings on grouping and texture segregation with those of others using a search paradigm indicating a...

The question of whether an afterimage viewed in a dark field appears to move during eye movement was studied by comparing recordings of eye movements with recordings of reports of perceived movement. The correlation was found to be quite good even under conditions where the eye movements were spontaneous rather than specifically directed. The resul...

The question raised by Stratton, whether a disoriented image can yield upright vision. was explored by exposing Os to a prismatically rotated field. To isolate the problem ofadaptation to altered egocentric orientation, the O’s view was restricted to a horizontal plane during both prism exposure and test. Significant adaptation based on movement-de...

Perceptual adaptation to prismatically created tilt of the retinal image was measured after three conditions of exposure: active, passive and no movement of the observer. No difference in magnitude of effect was found between the two movement conditions. The effects of no movement were considerably less than those attained with movement, thus indic...